


Girls on Ice

by Lirillith



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: F/F, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 22:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lirillith/pseuds/Lirillith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A first date in Stern Bild.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girls on Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladysorka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladysorka/gifts).



When Pao-lin and Kaede made their plans for the thing neither of them was quite ready to call a date (even though they both kept calling it that, and then backing off, _just kidding!_ ) Pao-lin insisted that she'd pick the restaurant. She'd been living in Stern Bild for years, she ate at restaurants all the time, she knew all the good spots. It'd be a surprise!

And Kaede was really looking forward to that surprise, right up until Pao-lin opened the door to a dim sum restaurant. Like Kaede, the girl who'd grown up in a place called Oriental Town because after a century no one wanted to change the name, was going to be blown away by her very first sight of dim sum. 

But Pao-lin not only opened the door, she stood back and held it open, chivalrously. And Kaede _liked_ dim sum, after all. Plus, well, she'd been born in Oriental Town, just like all her friends, and so had her dad. Just because everybody in the kitchen of her family's favorite dim sum place spoke Chinese didn't mean the food wasn't kind of Americanized. Or at least what her family always picked might be. Pao-lin was actually from China. This meal could still be plenty surprising.

So she just smiled at Pao-lin, and asked, "What's this place like?"

Pao-lin's explanation of the carts and the way the food was served and all that tested her ability to pretend to be surprised, but the moment Pao-lin started ordering dishes, all bets were off.

* * *

Phase two of this not-date thing was Kaede's responsibility, and it was a no-brainer. Ice skating. Obviously. Kaede had been watching Stern Bild on TV all her life, and all her life, she'd wanted to be one of the skaters at that big fancy Medaille Plaza rink. And then there was the fact that Pao-lin would be with her. Either Pao-lin would be awesome at ice skating, in which case they could zip around the rink together and Kaede could show off, or Pao-lin would suck at ice skating and would need to grab onto Kaede for support like her dad always seemed to need to grab onto Barnaby when Kaede dragged the two of them to the rink. Either way, win!

She hadn't considered a third possibility — Pao-lin would wobble and trip and hang onto the wall like any beginner, but she'd be too proud or stubborn to hang onto Kaede, and really, really bad at taking directions. 

Or maybe Kaede was really bad at giving directions. "You just kind of... kick off?" 

"I'm trying!" 

"Skating really slow just doesn't work when you're just starting out," Kaede added helpfully.

Pao-lin might have glowed a little blue for a second or two, and Kaede heard an alarmed shout from the sandwich shop that just had its sign flicker out. "Okay, I'm, um, going to go do a thing," she announced, and took off. 

When she was little, skating with her mom — and she'd lived in Stern Bild when her mom was alive, so they could have even come here, come to think of it — she remembered sticking to the outer edges. The better skaters were all further in, doing jumps and spins and things she didn't know the names for back then, skating backwards, anything that required a lot of room and might screw up the noobs who needed a railing for support or at least insurance. 

But nothing was keeping Kaede at the outer edge, so after one swift warmup lap, she moved into the center. Where was Pao-lin? Okay, over there, and doing pretty well without Kaede's inept coaching. Awesome. What was it Dad always said when he gave terrible directions? Them that can, do, and them that can't, teach. Barnaby said it was just what terrible teachers said to console themselves, but at the moment Kaede thought her dad might be onto something. Of course he could never know.

When she was pretty sure Pao-lin was looking the right direction, she looped around once, waved at her, and without waiting to see if Pao-lin reacted, twirled her way into a layback spin. 

When she emerged from it into a slow, backwards glide, she heard someone nearby clapping, but she didn't see Pao-lin at all. Well, that was a waste. She waved to her admirer and skated off, looking for her — not date, her _friend,_ who was just skating in a lap around the rink like that's what they were there for.

"Did you see me?" Kaede asked, eagerly, when she caught Pao-lin. She put herself in front of Pao-lin, matching her pace and skating backwards. 

"Of course I saw you! That was pretty cool!" Then she narrowed her eyes. "Waaait a second. Were you doing that just to show off?"

"Of course not! What would make you think that?"

"The fact you're Tiger's daughter." 

"Hey!" And before Kaede could say anything more in her own defense, Pao-lin apparently remembered she was a world-class athlete after all, and shot off at high speed, moving to one of the rink's informal inner lanes while she was at it. And here was Kaede in figure skates. 

Not that Pao-lin's rental skates were built for speed either. Kaede gave chase, grinning.

* * *

Phase three of this thing was decided jointly, and felt distinctly more like a date, if only because, after their ice race and Kaede nearly electrocuting some poor kid who bumped into her, they left the rink in search of cupcakes. Pao-lin knew a place, of course. And as they walked, the backs of their hands kept brushing. 

_This_ was something new to her, anyway — the pinkest, sweetest-smelling shop Kaede had ever seen or smelled in her life, and it sold nothing but cupcakes, in about a dozen flavors. "And they have different kinds on other days," Pao-lin added, clearly enjoying the sight of a blown mind. 

They left with one cupcake each (snickerdoodle for Pao-lin, chocolate fudge for Kaede) and stopped outside the door. "Which way?" Pao-lin asked.

Kaede shrugged. "Left?" It was a circuit of the rink, however you looked at it. 

While Kaede tried to keep her mountain of buttercream under control, they wandered around looking at Christmas decorations and not really having much to say. Was this awkward? Kaede didn't think it was actually awkward. But maybe Pao-lin did? And every time she thought that, they'd bump shoulders, or she'd notice Pao-lin smiling, and she'd be reassured till the next time. But they still didn't have much to _say._

Not for a while, anyway, until they stopped to listen to a busker who'd set up shop under the big tree, about a quarter of the way around from the Santa and the photographers. They were sort of leaning together without either of them exactly leaning on the other, without either of them putting an arm around each other. About midway through "Let It Snow" Kaede decided she might need to fix that, once she finished this cupcake and threw away the wrapper, so not right now. Sometime during the next song. Or the one after that, maybe. 

And then, after "Let It Snow," Pao-lin turned to look at Kaede, and burst out laughing.

"What? What'd I do?"

"You've got frosting on your nose," Pao-lin said, still grinning. She might have an adorable grin, but Kaede wasn't really in the mood to appreciate it as she wiped her face furiously. Everything sucked, including her cupcake.

For about ten seconds, until she realized Pao-lin's eyes were half-closed and their faces were really pretty close together, and she managed to close her eyes just in time for her first kiss.


End file.
